annuals

Chris Budd here from the desk of Indie Music Filter, officially marking this day as the 10th anniversary of when I started this blog. This hobby-turned-monster-of-an-experiment has been quite a ride (so far) and I still kind of feel like I’m only just getting started.

I took a long look back through the archives, wondering if there would be a way to sum up 10 years in a playlist. Would I be able to keep it under 100 songs? Well, here’s my best attempt in this “Indie Music Filter Turns 10” playlist.

I made a massive list of my favourite artists and songs; those heavily covered in the 4,900 posts on this site since 2006. A list of 350 songs became 192 and after a few more passes, I hit the 100 mark. These songs leftover were the ones that still to this day move me, the ones that have left that lasting mark.

Also, I had no intention of spending days crafting the perfect order (and didn’t want to rank the songs in order of which I liked the best), so I randomized the order. Et voila!

But before you go hitting play, I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the people that have contributed to this blog over the years, as well as a huge thank you to you, the music fan. What keeps me going is when I hear back from someone about a great song they heard on my blog, a playlist they shared with friends, or a new artist they became a fan of, because of something that was posted here. Thanks to those that RT, Like and share in helping me get the word out.

Last week while in Los Angeles I attended a pretty cool event at the LA office of Nettwerk. It was called The 2008 Music and Millennials Panel and had an interesting format. A surprise band put themselves completely out there for a panel of music industry professionals (including 80-100 in the audience) to critique their music and business strategy. The panel was moderated by Terry McBride (CEO of Nettwerk) and included a music publicist (Mitch Schneider, MSO), an entertainment lawyer (Dina La Polt, LaPolt Law), a promoter/venue owner (Mitchell Frank, president and founder of Spaceland Productions) and a music supervisor/label owner (Alexandra Patsavas, Owner of Chop Shop).

The band was given about 20 minutes to bring us up to speed on who they were, what they sounded like, what they’ve done so far as a band and a the different ways they’ve been marketing themselves in this changing music industry. The panel was then brought up on stage to inspire more discussion and ideas on what kind of things the band could do going forward to be more successful. A lot of really interesting points were brought up, but what really stuck with me was the importance of making that connection with music fans, as Terry mentioned, they are your record company. How a band interacts with the audience through socials networking sites, blogs, youtube videos, remix contests, iPhone applications is the now and future of this bands who want to last in this music industry.

The band was The Local Natives (from LA) and I thought they did a great job as our test subjects. They’re a five-piece band who channel energetic, percussion-driven indie rock. Think earlier Annuals, Broken Social Scene or Beirut with the harmonies of Fleet Foxes. They’ve been touring the West Coast of the US a couple times and had some spins on MTVU and MTV2Subterranean for their video ‘Who’s There’ (check it out at IndieMusicFilter.tv). And they now live in a house called Gorilla Mansion.

I picked up a 4-song ep at the panel and it got some considerable airplay in my rental car last week before heading back to Toronto. As a taste, check out Airplanes. I’d also recommend a track called World News, but you might have to go looking for that one. Finally, if you live in LA, this band plays tonight at the Silverlake Lounge (doors at 9pm, they’re on at 10ish).

I heard about this movie from reading The Playlist. The film is getting pretty good reviews, but its also has a killer soundtrack. MGMT, Ting Tings (who played here last night, I went to Annuals), Black Kids, and some Canadian love on there with Unicorns, New Pornographers and Patrick Watson. Dawn of the Dead by Does It Offend You, Yeah? was one of my favorite songs of the moment, until it was replaced by another DIOYY track, Being Bad Feels Pretty Good. Check it out here.

Does it scream 80’s montage? Think that’s where the song gets it name…

Wet Zoo is a five song EP containing 3 Annuals songs as well as the last 2 of the 5 by the band Sunfold; songs written by Annuals lead guitarist Kenny Florence. The whole EP will be streaming on AOL’s Spinner next week starting monday.

Check out the lead off track Sore. That trademark huge swelling sound, this time with strings.

I tried on a dress yesterday at Value Village. Its purple with fake jewels on it. Why was I trying on dresses? It’s for my twin brother; I’m going to make him wear it all weekend at his bachelor party up north….. expect posts this weekend to be infrequent, sloppy and sunburnt.

Thought I’d post a song here from a young local group called Still Life Still. They’re a six piece indie pop/rock band hailing from East York (and proud of it). During their set during NXNE at the Silver Dollar I drew the comparisons of bands like Broken Social Scene and Annuals (who the band I think is just about to discover). Young bands mean room for improvement, but I like where these kids are going.